There is a change in plans for ABC's 10-episode limited series The Astronaut Wives Club. The project, from Fake Empire, Groundswell Productions and ABC Studios, had been actively casting and getting ready to go into production for a July 24 premiere. Now production has been put on hold, and the series will undergo a creative change. It eyes a fall production start for a midseason 2014-15 launch. Written by Stephanie Savage based on Lily Koppel's 2013 book, Astronaut Wives Club tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history during the height of the space race. The book profiles dozens of the wives of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts. Originally, the series was envisioned to cover only the wives of the astronauts from the Mercury missions. Now ABC is expanding the scope to also include the Gemini and Apollo missions. That will involve reconceiving the arc of the season and expanding the current cast. Additionally, because the series involves the portrayal of real people, it has to go through an extensive clearing process, which has to be done after the scripts have been written.

The core seven wives of the Mercury astronauts that were at the center of the pilot script will remain central characters throughout the 10 episodes, gradually joined by Gemini and Apollo wives. The current cast includes JoAnna Garcia Swisher as Betty Grissom, Odette Annable as Trudy Cooper, Erin Cummings as Marge Slayton, Zoe Boyle as Jo Schirra, Azure Parsons as Annie Glenn and Desmond Harrington as Alan Shepherd, with casting expected to continue. Executive producing are Savage, Josh Schwartz, Len Goldstein, Michael London and Janice Williams, with Nick Cassavetes on board to direct the first episode.

Spartacus: Blood & Sand alumna Erin Cummings has been cast as one of the leads in ABC's 10-episode summer drama series The Astronaut Wives Club, from Fake Empire, Groundswell Productions and ABC Studios. Written by Stephanie Savage based on Lily Koppel’s book and directed by Nick Casavettes, it tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history during the height of the space race. Cummings, repped by Untitled and Paradigm, will play Marge, Deke Slayton's outspoken wife, whose colorful past is not in keeping with the cookie-cutter image that the astronaut wives are expected to present to the world. Maternal and funny, she becomes the glue that holds the Astronaut Wives Club together. Cummings’ series credits also include ABC's Detroit 1-8-7 and CBS' Made In Jersey. She has three features coming out: Cold Comes The Night, Late Phases and The Last Word.

Erin posted on Instagram: "This is what it looks like when the @Tigers win opening day AND you get the call that changes everything.... http://www.deadline.com/2014/04/erin-cummings-to-star-in-abcs-astronaut-wives-club/"